Dashboard

BEITUNIYA, WEST BANK Israel releases more than 80 Palestinian prisoners

SHANGHAI Germany defeats Brazil in Women's World Cup

KAMPUNG Doctors work to contain Congo's Ebola outbreak

LOS CRISTIANOS Immigrants are rescued off the Canary Islands

HEFEI, CHINA Pigs race for national holiday

JAKARTA Muslims travel home to celebrate the end of Ramadan

THE MAP

Cruel and Unusual Punishment?

On Sept. 27, the U.S. Supreme Court stopped a Texas execution two days after agreeing to hear arguments about whether lethal injection falls under the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The toxic serum is meant to be pain-free, but there is some doubt about the drug's numbing anesthetic. While the court hears the case, 12 of the 37 states that use lethal injection have halted executions so far. [This article contains a complex diagram. Please see hardcopy of magazine.]

LEXICON

Burma

DEFINITION Bur-muh n. Nation in Southeast Asia that in 1989 changed its official English name to Myanmar (Meye-ahn-mahr).

CONTEXT As its army moved this fall to quash monks' peaceful protests, the violent crackdown made international headlines that, depending on the publication, identified the country as Burma, Myanmar or both.

USAGE The Burmese have long referred to the area as both Bama and Myanma. The British in 1885 dubbed the colony Burma, a name that stuck until a military junta changed it to Myanmar in 1989. The U.S. and the U.K. refuse to recognize the newer name.

ARTIFACT

Bird's-Eye Brouhaha

UNFORTUNATE DESIGN Users of the satellite-image program Google Earth have discovered that, from above, a California Navy barracks resembles a swastika.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE ... Aware of the problem for decades, the Navy has refrained from making any changes because the shape is unnoticeable from ground level.

... O.K., MAYBE THERE IS The Navy plans to spend up to $600,000 modifying the four L-shaped buildings with landscaping and solar cells.

HEALTH NOTE

The Vaccine Debate Goes On

LATEST FINDINGS Thimerosal, a mercury-based vaccine preservative, has long been associated with neurological disabilities like autism. New research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, however, finds thimerosal does not cause childhood-development problems.

CONTROVERSY CONTINUES The National Autism Association argues that the research focuses on too few subjects. The CDC attributes the slightly higher rate of tics in thimerosal-exposed boys to the study's design, while critics point to autism. Still, the overall results should placate parents worried about the effects of vaccines. A more extensive CDC study of thimerosal and autism is due next year.

THE STRIP

What the Kids Aren't Reading

It's not surprising that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn still regularly riles parents when it's taught in school; Mark Twain's 1884 classic is soaked with racial epithets. Some of the other books challenged or banned from classrooms or libraries in the past year are more unexpected. To see a list compiled with the help of the American Library Association, for early October's Banned Books Week, go to time.com/bannedbooks

AND TANGO MAKES THREE Two male penguins really did adopt an abandoned chick, but the book about it has been accused of homosexual undertones. BELOVED Toni Morrison's Pulitzer-prizewinning novel about antebellum slavery has been attacked for its depiction of bestiality, racism and sex. SO FAR FROM THE BAMBOO GROVE Based on the Japanese author's WW II-era experiences, the novel is criticized for its hints at rape and domestic abuse.

HARRY POTTER J.K. Rowling's blockbuster series about a boy wizard has been repeatedly challenged by claims that it promotes witchcraft.